Hatton caps off championship season with National victory

Sun Prairie, WIs., Sep. 5, 2005- Scott Hatton finished off his second straight Badger Midget Series Championship season with a victory in the 24th annual Fireman's Nationals presented by Pepsi. The victory for Hatton allowed him to become the fifth multi-time winner of the event.
The event got off to a rocky start when Jeff Flesher flipped on the opening lap escaping injury setting up a complete restart. Danny Stratton quickly moved from fourth to the lead by completion of the first lap. Stratton held an incredible straightaway lead at the conclusion of lap four when second place Darren Hagen stalled on the track.
On the restart Hatton lined up second behind Stratton. Stratton again pulled away from the field and enjoyed a two second advantage when he began lapping the tail of the field on the 12th lap. Hatton and Brad Kuhn were waging an excellent battle for second when the event was stopped to a dramatic fire in Bryan Clauson's car.
Stratton, Hatton and Kuhn pulled away from the field on the restart. Hatton shadowed Stratton until the 34th lap when he drove under Stratton for the lead entering turn one. Once in the lead Hatton maintained a two car length-plus advantage over Stratton and Kuhn for the remainder of the race. The leaders spent the final ten laps in heavy lapped traffic. Hatton driving the Huston Solution Racing Stealth-Mopar finished 0.665 seconds ahead of Stratton, followed by Kuhn, fast qualifier Brandon Waelti and Aaron Fiscus.
The field received the checkered flag on lap 49, one short of the scheduled distance, and ran the final lap under caution as a tribute to Kevin Doty. Doty whose car number was 50, had won the event a record five times, died of injuries last month from a Aug. 14 crash at the track. Hatton and his car owner Dwight Huston leads the list of honorees for the series awards banquet slated for Saturday Night Nov. 12 at the Angell Park Pavilion.